Justice in the city that never sleeps
by thorn of roses2205
Summary: Young Justice AU: Artemis Crock was having a really bad day, She'd woken up, hungover, late for work and unable to remember the name of the redheaded man in her bed, and on top of all that her sister had to go and dump her kid on her with no warning. Spitfire, Chalant, NYC AU, frequent swearing
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own young justice. I'm back people all caught up with school after my operation and now I have time to write again, Whoo! am I the only one that's excited? If you happen to be reading Adjusting I will post the new chapter on sunday.**

Artemis Crock had three big problems, Problem numero uno she was majorly hungover and had a big meeting regarding the biggest case of her career in 20 minutes on the other side of Manhattan, problem number 2 was lying in bed next to the particularly delicious redhead from downstairs that I'd been flirting with since he'd moved in a few weeks ago, problem number three she'd three missed calls from my sister; getting any sort of contact from her sister was never a good thing it was usually because she needed money or a place to crash for a few days.

She could blame Zatanna for two of her problems, the other one was a result of her parents deciding that they should have a kid before Artemis.

It all started last night she had come home from work as she always did with a bag full of paper work (one of the many joys of being the youngest partner at a top law firm), she'd worked until the numbers and letters on the page had started to swim, so she's wondered into the kitchen for a glass of water, possibly wine, she hadn't quite decided. Zatanna had just got home too, unusual because even though the girls shared the penthouse usually only Artemis was in it, as Zatanna was often away with her magic show or staying at her on and off again boyfriend Dick's apartment a few clocks away. Anyway Artemis had been muttering about numbers swimming as she's walked into the kitchen and Zatanna told her "It's the first sign of madness you know."

Artemis saw the ice cream and bottle of wine on the side, this could only mean 2 things: one, she was thinking about her dad, or her and Dick had broken up (again), either way it ended up with us drinking far too many mojitos, and from then on it got a little fuzzy, I'm not quite sure how I got here, maybe I was drunk checking my mail on the way back from the bar again(It's the only time I really remember unless I'm waiting for a package) and ran into cute downstairs neighbour guy, that I still don't know the name of.

Problem number 4, I keep on referring to myself in the third person, I gotta stop that shit. I peel back the covers and get dressed quickly pulling on a purple blouse and a black and white tribal print pencil skirt. Cute. downstairs neighbour guy woke up as I was pulling on my shoes, I looked at my watch 15 minutes I am not going to make this meeting on time. Fuck.

"In a hurry?" He asks with that, really sexy, gravelly sleepy voice guys have in the morning.

"I've got a meeting in 15 minutes, sorry to run out on you like this." I say tearing apart my bedside table looking for my phone where the hell did drunk me put it?

"Looking for this?" He says waving the offending object in the air.

"Yes. Thank you."

"Hold on, two seconds." He says. I look at him incredulously for a second, he's taking a selfie. On _my_ phone.

"Yeah that's a nice one." He says tapping the screen a few times, "There now you've got my number and my photo."

"Thanks," I say a little sarcastically making his grin grow even further, I couldn't help but smile back "there's OJ and a few cereal bars in the kitchen 'Tanna and I need to do go grocery shopping feel free to have one." Somehow I get the feeling this wasn't going to be a typical one night stand, I mean I was offering him food, does this mean I like him.

I pull my bag and papers along as I sprint to make my 8:30 meeting, because according to my boss Mornings are the most productive time for humans, he made that sound like he wasn't, maybe he was a robot Mr smith certainly acted like it. But let me tell you my mornings are never productive late nights were a habit I got into as a teenager, after having all night study sessions and archery team practice both in conjunction was how I got a full ride to Stanford on early admission leaving my family behind. Not that they were much of a family anyway, I think as I use a chopstick from the coffee table as a hair clip.

I sprint into the glass walled meeting room, full of execs, I was a junior partner at a big law firm, and I had the copy of the folder we needed for the case. I'm not going to lie I probably looked like a mess, no makeup in sight, face red from running six blocks because the stupid subway was closed, and my second day hair was in a messy chignon on top of my head, I really hope they didn't notice it was a chopstick from the blue devil Chinese on fifth avenue, the blue stripes were kind of give away. A look from the ever disapproving Diana prince at the end of the table proved otherwise.

I inwardly groaned. This merger would be the death of me, this meeting was getting no one anywhere, I wanted to bang my head on the glass table but didn't because it would probably break, we'd been sitting her for over an hour and the meeting was a deadlock and Diana was glaring at me mercilessly.

A knock at the door took attention away from my makeupless face and dirty hair. It was Megan my dutiful secretary, she's great and has some, thing going on with the mail guy Connor, how the guy was allowed a dog in the mail room I don't know. "Um I'm really sorry to interrupt, but Miss Crock, we have a situation." She says, acting professional in front of the senior partners, I have to stop myself from snorting at being called Miss Crock, I tell everyone to call me Artemis. I hate my last name but I just can't bring myself to change it, I need to remake the crock name into something good.

"Can't it wait, Secretary?" Princess up her ass otherwise known as Diana Prince, an example of nepotism at its finest. She's also the rudest woman on the planet. Mr Kent narrowed his eyes, at Diana, he clearly wasn't impressed at his fellow senior partner, and Mr Smith stayed as stoic as ever.

"Thank you Megan. Artemis, you can have a quick recess to deal with whatever seems to be the issue may be, I'm sure we can cope without you for a little while." Mr Kent tells me smiling.

'Thank you.' I mouth as I run out the door. He winks as I run out of the door.

"Megan what is the problem? What's so important that you needed to drag me out of my meeting?" I ask as she drags me through the office to my small corner office that overlooks the Manhattan skyline.

"Um, do see the child sitting on the couch?"

"What? Are you sure your oven isn't leaking carbon monoxide?"

"Turn around." she says unamused, I spin around to see a kid of about 7/8 on the love seat in my office.

"Holy Shit! Why is there a kid in my office?"

"I don't know, I walked in five minutes ago to get the Lomaris file, and she was just sitting there. Oh and your sisters left you like a hundred messages, she's really trying to get a hold of you." She tells me. My eyes flicker between Megan and the kid.

"She won't talk to me I don't know how she got past security, I don't know how she got past me, and I don't know how long she's been here. Maybe you could try to talk to her?" she suggests.

"Kids don't like me." I tell her bluntly.

"Try, she's got to be here for a reason."

"Fine." I submit, I crouch down in front of the little red head, barely balancing on the front of my black louboutins, "Hey sweetie, what's your name?" I ask her. She shakes her head. If she's a street kid she'll be afraid of the police and child services. "Look, I'm going to level with you kid, if you don't tell me your name I can't help you and then I'll have to call the police." Her eyes widen and she shakes her head.

"No you don't want me to call the police or no you don't have a name?"

No response, I look around looking for anything that might give me a clue as to her ID, but kids don't really carry ID's with them. I see her little Minnie mouse rucksack with an envelope poking out of it, I recognise the writing, it's Jade's writing, and my name's on the front.

"My name's Artemis. Is this for me?" I ask she looks at me with her wide grey eyes peeking up from behind her red fringe, she nods. I rip open the envelope, my eyes skim over the page;

Artemis,

Congratulations you're an aunt, it's a little late seeing as she's seven and I've not seen you in nearly 10 years (It took me forever to track you down.), and seeing as you wouldn't return any of my messages I took drastic action. I see you're shot big shot lawyer, congrats on that. Anyway I'm in some trouble so I need you to take Lian (your niece) for a while, you're the only one I can trust with her. There's another letter in her bag that you need to read in private, I wouldn't recommend reading it in front of your nosey assistant

Love Jade

P.S. she's allergic to peanuts.

Great, Jade great, thank you, I have the biggest case of my career at the moment and you decide to dump your kid on me. Thank you such sisterly love, I hope you burn in hell jade. That explains how the kid got through security.

"Artemis?" Megan says waving a hand in front of my face, I guess I'd been standing staring into space. "What does the note say?"

"She's mine." I say absently, "Well not mine, my sisters, although this is pretty drastic even for her. I don't need this right now."I say massaging my temples, _Okay Artemis, breathe, thin._ "Alright Call Zatanna tell her to come and meet me, I'm going to take all of my work home with me, can you pack it up for me and put it in my bag, I'll go talk to Mr Kent. Lian, kiddo, Megan's my good friend she's going to look after you for about 20 minutes maximum while I sort some things out, Okay?" I say after a few moments.

She nods again.

"I'll pack up your stuff." She tells me.

"Thank you Megan."

"Hey Lian, do you like cookies? I made some yesterday."

A small, timid smile creeps up on the little girl's face, it's half of Jades Cheshire grin.

I walk back to the conference room. I'd talk to Mr Kent, he'd be fine once I'd explained the situation. I'd take some personal leave, I was due to use up some vacation days anyway.

"Mr Kent can I talk to you, for a moment." I say poking my head through the door. The broad shouldered man looked puzzled, but follows me out telling everyone to take a quick recess to go get coffee or whatever.

"Are you okay Artemis? I've told you before its okay to call me Clark."

"Can I take the rest of the day off? Please?"

"What happened?" Blue eyes filled with concern.

"Um, what do you know about my family situation." Mr Kent was my boss he'd red my file.

"Uh, you don't talk to anyone in your family, both your parents are alive or at least they were when I hired you because that's what you told me, and you've a sister. How is this relevant?" He asks as I lead him to my office.

I point to Lian through the glass wall, "My sister dropped her off this morning without telling me. She's been trying to get a hold of me, I just ignored the calls, so Jade being Jade went to drastic measures."

"Woah."

"Yeah, woah isn't the word that I almost said in front of a 7 year old when I read the letter."

"Have a few days off Artemis, trust me you'll need it, I know I did when I found out about-" He stops midsentence, "Just take some compassionate leave, I'm sure we can function without you for a few days." He says looking shell shocked.

"Thanks Clark, Megan's packing up my work for today, so I'll do some paperwork from home and get it either messengered or walk it over later."

"Take your time, it's fine."

"Thank you."

"Have fun. Alright recess is over, we all need to return to the conference room." He calls out as he turns around and walking back to the room full of uncomfortable chairs.

"The leave is cleared at least for a few days, have you talked to Zatanna?"

"She's on her way in now. She told someone she's borrowing the Bentley."

That'll be Dick, she loves to drive his Bentley, although she scarcely is allowed to drive it meaning, the miniature billionaire playboy is probably still half asleep. Dick Greyson took after his adoptive fathers past tendencies before he settled down with his long term on and off girlfriend. I met Dick when I was in high school, I'd got him out of a tough situation when he'd got lost in the slums, in response his father had given me the precious Wayne foundation scholarship to Gotham Academy, where'd joined the Archery team and got an extremely good education.

I owed a lot to Dick, and eventually he'd met my best friend Zatanna when she'd been in town with her dad after they'd gone on tour, and they always made sure to stay in whichever city my family was in for a few weeks, once when my dad had gone to jail for about 30 days I'd gone on tour with them. Dick and Zatanna had started their weird friends with benefits relationship back in high school occasionally going along calling each other one another's boyfriend and girlfriend, respectively.

I held out a hand to Lian pulling her off the love seat in my office, we walked out the glass door to Megan's little officey desk area, and before you ask what's with all the glass, Clark believes having transparent offices that can be looked into shows transparency in our law firm, how we are exactly what we say we are, it's symbolism basically means Clarks off his nut, but at least he's nice.

"Artemis, I've packed up the Lomaris file, and do you want to take the Jones file and the Hawkins file? Or do you just want me to file them for you to sort out another day?"

"File them for another day." I say absent mindedly watching Lian out of the corner of my eye, Megan had given her the bear from her desk and she was playing with it, making it walk around the room, my guess is she was pretending the bear was a spy from all the forward rolls and back flips.

"Somebody call for a ride? " Zatanna calls as the lift dings. He eyes zero in on the kid, "Did I travel forward in time or something, because I know you screwed that sexy redhead from downstairs last night, and I'm really bad at biology but I don't think things happen that quickly." She says pointing to Lian.

"Very funny." I tell her, she smiles at me.

"Is that the sexy guy from the mailbox?" Megan asks, I nod at her briefly and she smiles happily.

"But seriously who's kid is that?" she asks me.

"Jade's, I'll explain in the car. Let's get going, before Diana finds out that I'm leaving work early." I say walking over to Lian, picking up her bag and holding her hand.

"Oh is her royal majesty in a bad mood?" Zatanna asks.

"The worst, she's so rude." Megan told her.

"Lian, what do you say to Megan for letting you borrow her teddy bear?" I ask the seven year old as she hands the teddy back to Megan.

"Thank you." She says quietly, it's the first time I've heard her speak, she's got a quiet voice, smooth but still childlike.

I take her hand and lead her into the elevator with Zatanna.

"So let's take her back to apartment, then I can go grocery shopping after we make a list of what Lian might need. That way we can show Lian her home for the time being and I can get Dick to come with me. Plus you know he'll want to see this." She flashes a shit eating grin at me before exiting the elevator, sauntering out the doors of the building to the car that had been parked haphazardly out front blocking the traffic. Only Zatanna parks like that it's a miracle she passed her driver's test.

"You know most best friends would be more supportive and helpful when they find out they've been put in charge of their seven year old niece that they only found out about this morning."

"I'm being supportive, in my own way. Come on Arty it'll be a laugh you'll see."

Why do I get the feeling I won't be laughing anytime soon.


	2. Chapter 2

When we got back to the apartment, Dick was wide awake and eating breakfast on the island. It fell out of his mouth when we walked in, man, I wish I'd a camera to get the little troll back for all the times he's had a camera in all my embarrassing moments. Let's just say my first New years eve with the legal drinking age was interesting to say the least. I mean I was curious as to where he got the cereal.

"What the-? how the-?" his mouth opens and closes several times, he resembled a fish.

"Wow look at that ladies and gentlemen, the boy genius is speechless." Zatanna teases as she kisses his cheek,

"Lian, why don't you go sit in the sitting room and watch some tv." She nods before scurrying off in the direction I pointed.

"Who'd give you a kid?" Dick asks.

I raise an eyebrow at him, as he starts to back track, "I mean, not that you aren't completely responsible and independent adult, but you know nothing about kids." He states sarcastically.

"Alright Mr I know so much about kids, I guess you'll have to show us what to do, put some pants on and help Zatanna make a shopping list. 'Tanna, help your idiot boyfriend find his pants and tell him about the kid."

"Artemis's sister dumped her kid at her office. Oh Arty show Lian the spare room, she can have it."

"Thanks Zee, I mean it, you're seriously being so good about this."

"Ah its fine, this place was getting a little quiet anyway, maybe the kid'll bring some life back into the apartment."

"You know I have 3 little brothers and a little sister, right." Dick says after interrupting Zatanna. We ignore him and continue planning.

"Alright, well we're going to need all hands on deck, can you call Kaldur and see if he can get some clothes for her? Might as well use his personal shopper expertise."

"Yeah, I'll call him, set up a meeting for later."

"Alright, I'm going to show Lian her room, you guys write a shopping list, no nuts, she's allergic."

"Alright. Zee, where are the pens?"

"Err, Artemis?"

"Don't look at me, I keep all mine in my desk after last time."

"What happened last time?" Dick asks.

"I accidently lost the pens in a different dimension, okay?"

He snorts, "How do you 'accidentally' lose something in another dimension."

"Well they might not be in another dimension, but I was practicing a new trick and I lost therm."

"So what if they just fell out of the sky and hit some kids in Africa?"

"Well then they'd have a couple of very nice/expensive pens."

"But what if they hit like a president or something."

"Then I sure as hell hope that they weren't the monogrammed pens that Artemis got for me last year when they were on sale."

"But what about-"

"Guys," I say cutting Dick off, "Shopping list?"

"Yeah we're getting to that part."

"Right, okay yeah, I'm going to go shower so you have time to write the list." I tell them.

I pull Lian away from the TV and show her, her room, she gasps upon seeing the cream room, that has silver and black accents adorning it, it's not small, not with Zatanna's extravagant tastes, a small bathroom is at the back and by small I mean piddly it's got a small shower, a toilet and a sink in fact when we were first shown the apartment we hadn't known about it, we'd thought it was just more closet space, not that it was needed Zatanna's room had a built in wardrobe bigger that the room Jade and I used to share.

"This is all mine?" she asks

"Yeah." I say nodding, "Pretty cool Right?"

"It's like a dream?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I've never had a room to myself, I've always shared with my mother, it's not like we stay anywhere long enough for it to really become my own."

"Well, this will always be your room, for as long as you want it, okay, we can get some more personal touches when we're out okay?"

"Okay." She says with the first smile I've ever seen on her, it's not one I've seen Jade wear, I like that, it's a happy smile.

"Alright, I need to shower, are you okay to be alone for a minute."

She nods absentmindedly, I remember what it was like moving in with Zee, it was overwhelming, the big modern furniture, that somehow fitted in with all her family heirlooms, the big windows adorning every inch of the apartment showing the city from every angle, it was breath taking.

I pulled the chopstick out of my hair letting my ashen blonde locks tumble over my shoulders as I hop into the steaming hot shower. Man I need this.

I get out 10 minutes later, feeling refreshed. I pull on white leggings and a grey tank top and a black chunky knit cropped jumper, I pull my wet hair up into a messy bun. I walk into the kitchen, Dick and Zatanna are still bickering.

"So are we going to put pens on the shopping list?" he asks her.

"Shut up! It wasn't my fault."

"It kind of was." He teases.

"Artemis, do you think Lian will need some clothes?" Zatanna asks trying to change the subject.

"Probably, but it think food is a priority for now. Hold on I'll ask her."

I walk down the hall way to the guest room, Lian's sitting on the bed with her bag.

"Hey." I say as I tap on the open door.

"Hello."

"So Zee wanted to know do you need extra clothes?"

"Um, I don't know, all my clothes are in my bag."

"You want me to help you unpack? If you need anything we can make a list and buy it, we have a friend who's a personal shopper he can bring some stuff over."

"Um. Okay." She says quietly.

We unpack putting her clothes in the lower drawers so that she could reach them. She desperately needed a new pair of jeans, as hers had worn away where she'd stood on the backs because they were too long, she needed a few more t-shirts as she only had three, if she was going to be living in new York she was definitely going to need a warmer sweater and possibly a coat. She'd probably need some boots.

"What's your favourite colour? Kal can bring anything you want."

"I love red and green. But I also like purple."

"Alright I'll tell Kaldur.

"Okay." She says with a smile.

"Alright, lets go grocery shopping."

We parked Dick's car outside the Kwerki Mart, We'd made it in one piece no thanks to Zee's scary driving. We wondered through the aisles Dick and Zatanna wondering around and coming back with random things to put in the cart, being with them is like being with two children, Lian was better behaved than both of them she stayed close to the cart staying quiet and always within eyesight. We get to the rainbow filled candy aisle and her eyes light up, she keeps quiet and puts her head down looking at her shoes, I know that expression, it's one I used to know whenever we went grocery shopping, well more like stealing. No candy, that's what my dad would tell Jade and I, he didn't give a reason but we didn't dare question him.

"You can have something if you want."

"I can?" her smile fills her face.

"Yeah, stick it in the cart." I say as I reach up for a box of fruit roll ups.

She looks up at the shelf it towers over her, its about 3x her height, I turn my back to get a box of frosted sugar cinnamon pop tarts pf the shelf, when I hear a crash from the next aisle, I run to the next one along. Dick and Zee are on the floor laughing surrounded by a tonne of cereal boxes, some had spilled onto the floor they had an action figure each that they were making fight each other among other things.

"How old are you?"

"22"they say at the same time. They burst out laughing again. And I avert my eyes pretending not to know them as an angry store clerk shows up, I switch my focus back to Lian. Crap. I lost Lian. I lost a 7 year old, my sister is going to murder me if she ever comes back. I find the cart abandoned filled with all our junk food.

"Aunty Artemis look." I hear a small voice shout, I look around trying to locate her.

"Up here." She shouts, my eyes focus upwards, she's walking around on the top of the shelf. Note to self, leave all three children at home next time we go grocery shopping, usually I can deal with just Zatanna, but Zatanna and Dick and Lian.

"Catch me Arty!" she shout taking a leap off the shelf, my eyes widen in surprise as I leap forward to catch the flying seven year old. I catch her and fall backwards, Jesus, this is why I hate gravity. I fall onto something squishy, oh dear god please don't be another child, I can't take any more kids. I get up to realize I had actually been knocked back into a pile of watermelons, and now I had red watermelon juice covering my ass resembling, well I'm sure you can figure out what I'm getting at.

"Sorry." Lian says quietly looking worried, and shrinking back, I think she was expecting me to get really angry.

"It's fine, let's just get this mess sorted out."

"Hey Artemis I guess you found the watermelons. Speaking of watermelons do you remember that guy you hooked up with in high school, you know the one you dumped by throwing a watermelon at his face." Dick says.

I glare and switch the subject. "Let's just go pay for everything we need and everything we broke. Lian, Zee, Dick-"

"Oh sure I get put last." He says

I ignore him, "The person who keeps contact with the cart for the longest gets to pick what take out we have for dinner."

All three run to the cart and jump in gripping on for dear life. I try to move the cart but it's too heavy.

"Um guys?"

"Yeah?" All three turn to look at me.

"Get out the cart!" I shout

 **Okay so this has taken forever sorry, hope you enjoyed it Kaldur is in the next chapter. Do I have to do a disclaimer in an Au i think i might so i don't own YJ sorry**


	3. Chapter 3

I was exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment.

"Let's order in." Zatanna suggests, only because it's her night to cook and I know she can't be bothered to cook, even though I can't remember any time we ate something that wasn't take out.

"Anything but Chinese, we've had that every day for nearly two weeks." I hate to admit that but it's true, the last time we ate proper food was when Bruce visited Dick and Alfred cooked a meal for all of us. It had non fried vegetables and everything.

"Pizza?" Dick suggests.

"Yeah, there should be a menu on the fridge." I say flopping onto the couch, we were surrounded by bags, most of them Zatanna's claiming she desperately needed a pair of navy espadrilles as her periwinkle pair were a few weeks old and had some dirt on them and then somehow from there she remembered that we were in a department store and she needed to buy everything. I'd roll my eyes but even that would be too much effort, I shouldn't even be surprised by now, I was used to my best friends crazy spending. Kaldur was bringing over some stuff for Lian later, because it's about a week before school starts and I didn't feel the burning desire to go shopping in the kids department along with the rest of New York. And speaking of school, should I enrol Lian in the local middle school?

"What kind of pizza do you think Lian will eat, Arty?" Dick asks from the kitchen.

"Hold on I'll go ask her." I drag my tired body off the sofa, god why am I so heavy, should I start going running again? Urgh exercise vs sleep? Sleep.

"Lian?" I call as I walk towards her room, padding over the cream deep pile carpet.

I look into the small room, at first I can't see her, but then I see two feet sticking out from under the bed.

"What are you doing?" I ask tilting my head to the left and leaning to get a better look.

"I think I dropped my hairband."

"You mean this one?" I say as I pick up one form the floor by the light switch.

"Yeah!" she says as she crawls out from under the bed.

"Why do I feel this was less dropped rather launched?"

"Because it was, I was trying to switch off the light."

"Oh so you're going to bed? I was going to see if you wanted pizza, but if you're too tired." I tease turning to walk out.

"Pizza!" She exclaims jumping up excitedly.

"Yeah, we're ordering in, what do you want, or do you want something else? Do you not like pizza? No of course you like pizza, what kid doesn't love pizza?"

"I like Pizza, I was just excited, mom doesn't get pizza often, it's expensive and mom's paranoid about deliveries to the house."

"Alright let's order more than we can eat so we can have it for breakfast tomorrow

"Pizza for breakfast?"

"Yeah? Is that wrong, should I be giving you vegetables or something?" I ask unsurely.

"No, at home we live of veggies, rice and chicken and occasionally pasta with sauce."

"Pizza it is. Come on into the living room, Dick's ordering. Kaldur will be here soon with some clothes for you to have a look at."

She trails behind me as I wonder through into the lounge, Zee's snuggled up next to Dick on the sofa he's talking on the phone ordering the pizza, and she's either playing candy crush or answering emails. From the string of curse words that just bubbled from her mouth I'm guessing it was the former.

"Zee!"

"Yeah?" she responds looking up innocently.

"Don't curse around Lian."

"Oh shit, sorry." Her blue eyes buldge realizing she just slipped again, "Fuck, I mean, balls, I mean-"

"Zee! Just stop talking!"

"Sorry." She says biting her lip. Dick's trying to hold back his laughter as he recites his card details by memory.

"Yeah, we're on the top floor. Well I'm sorry if it's a bit of a trek but at least there's an elevator, just bring it up and I'll give a large tip okay…. Okay…. Yeah….. well maybe you should put that on your add we don't deliver to 30th floor apartments with orders that contain more than four pizzas and sides." He argues getting frustrated, dragging his hands through his hair. He says one more okay and hangs up.

"I swear that becomes far too stressful every time." He complains rubbing his temples

I laugh, "Want a beer?" I offer.

"Yes please." He says

"Glass of wine for me please." Zatanna calls as I wander into the kitchen. I grab two beers from the fridge, along with a bottle of water for Lian and take a bottle of red wine and two glasses and walk back flopping onto couch.

I close my eyes and sip my beer, a contented sigh escaped my lips. No one talks for a moment all there is the background noise from the tv.

Our universal moment of serenity is interrupted by the door buzzer.

"I'm going to have to get that aren't I?"

"Yup." Zatanna says popping the 'p'

I remove my arse from the sofa pulling myself away from the cushioned heaven to answer the door. Oh well at least we don't have to wait around, the door man buzzes us as soon as he finds out where they are headed and has them on the elevator. However it is someone he's never seen before he rings up to us, but he knows Kaldur and the pizza guy well enough to know just to send them right up.

I open the door to see Kaldur struggling with two rails filled with a rainbow clothing. Well I don't actually see him, he's hidden behind something that resembles tulle.

"What the hell?"

"I know you said just the basics, but I could not resist." He says as he hangs his black scarf up on a hook just inside the door before rolling up the sleeves of his pale pink Calvin Klein shirt as he starts to drag the mass of clothing through the door way.

"Kaldur." I give him the lawyer stare, the one that make the other people in the courtroom crumble.

"Fine. I wasn't sure what she'd like and what would look good so I got lots and lots of stuff."

I smile at him and chuckle slightly, "I'll get boy genius to help you."

"Oh great but some very handsome boy in the lobby, obviously a runner, I f you catch my drift. " he pauses to waggle his eyebrows, "Offered to help me he's bringing up the shoes now."

Oh god. "Kal, did he happen to be a red head?" I ask

"yeah, he was how'd you know. He's obviously new because I've never seen him here before."

"He moved in a few weeks ago."

"And Arty fucked him last night."

"Zatanna there is a seven year old in the room."

"Oh please Jade has a much worse potty mouth I'm sure she's heard it all before."

"Not the point. "

"Wait this wouldn't be mail box boy? Would it?"

"How many people did you tell?" I ask Zatanna.

"Only Dick."

"Well you might as well have posted it online. Zee I told you not to tell him." I groan.

"I can't help it, would you say no to that beautiful face." She says pointing to Dick who's face was now changed into a blue eyed puppy dog face, one he'd been using on me since we were kids I was immune but Zee however was not."

"Yes. all the time."

"I just don't have that kind of will power." She says

I glare at her.

"Oh come on Arty just because you can actually see yourself in a relationship with him. He's the first person since Cameron. And let's face it he has the whole wholesome I'm from Kansas I have a perfect moral compass thing going for him."

I sigh, I love my best friend, I do but sometimes she makes it very hard.

Lian is enchanted by Kaldur within a second of meeting him, and you can see why, he treats her like some kind of princess, they disappear within an instant in the rails of clothes and Lian is enchanted. While I'm left waiting for hot mailbox guy, the guy I still don't know the name of, he's too new for he's name to be engraved on his letter box, it usually take 2-3 months to be sent off and engraved.

The lift dings and Hot mail box guy appears dragging the biggest box I've ever seen on the smallest wheels ever.

"Need any help?" I ask

"Yeah, you can help me by not ordering so many shoes next time." He says grunting as he shoves the box trying to push off using the wall of the elevator.

"I didn't order the shoes, Kal always comes bearing goodies. It's why we keep him around." I tease

"I heard that!" He shouts from somewhere in a rail of clothing.

"Sorry you had to drag that all the way up here, think I can pay you in pizza we just ordered in so you'rre welcome to stick around."

"Please stick around." I hear Kaldur mumble from the racks again, god could he be anymore obvious, luckily Mailbox guy was oblivious.

"Wally!" Dick greets doing some weird kind of fistbump, high five handshake thing, the rails of clothing had been enough to drag him and Zatanna off the sofa. Well that answered the name question, but really his name is _Wally_?

A/N: Please don't kill me, I just had really bad writers block its worse for adjusting but I am working on a chapter for that if you read that. You guys should know the drill by now I own none of the characters I'm just playing with them, if I owned young justice I would at least continue in the form of a comic book and this is probably full of mistakes so feel free to point them out. I love reviews and they motivate me so much *wink wink nudge nudge* so don't forget to leave me one or PM me cuz I alwys love chatting to you guys! :) nights TOR2205


	4. NOT A CHAPTER JUST AN APOLOGY

Hi guys,

sorry I've been MIA of late, I've had exams, I'm doing four A-levels so its a heavy course load plus working till late at night trying to make money, even though the job is awful and pays peanuts. Anyway enough of my crappy excuses I haven't been fair to you guys as my readers so I'll try and write a super long chapter for everything I've got going at the moment to make up for it.

As usual any comments questions and queries will be answered fairly quickly, if you wanna yell at me I completely understand my lack of updates is a sucky thing to do to you all.

Lots of love,

ToR


	5. Chapter 4

As kal and Liam flit between the racks of clothing Zee starts to interrogate that deliciousness known as Wally; our new neighbour.

"So Wallace, where are you from?"

"Central city, Kansas."

She leans in, "so Artemis defiled an innocent country boy last night, interesting."

Wally looks extremely uncomfortable, taking a sip of his beer.

"Zee." Dick mumbles, pulling her back from her interrogative position, that made the small girl seem almost dominating.

She taps on her iPad, which has been pulled out of nowhere, "So Wallace Rudolph West of Kansas it is, your Facebook photo really doesn't do you justice." She holds it up, it's a photo of him as a teenager, in yellow and red track clothes, he's skinny and lanky, and is frowning in determination.

"I, uh, don't really use Facebook, just messenger."

Zee makes a humming sound in response as she taps a few more times, "and these photos of children on from about six weeks ago? Are they your kids? Brothers? sisters?"

He gulps, "They're my aunt's, that was a family barbecue last month."

"So you're totally available?"

He nods, jaw twitching.

"Who's this?"

She brings up a photo of a blonde girl, well more like a pink haired girl with blonde highlights from the early 2000's.

"My ex jenni."

"Her Facebook profile says her name's Jinx."

"She's weird."

Zee smiles, "so you're one of those guys that's talks shit about their ex?"

He chuckles, " No, she actually what you would call weird, she's pretty cool but she's really into voodoo and likes to say things involving karma. Her main life goal is to learn to sleep hanging upside down like a bat."

Zee opens her mouth to say something, before closing it and frowning, "Okay Artemis that's literally the only bad thing about this guy that I could find so I officially have nothing."

I laugh.

"Seriously marry this guy, he's perfect."

I apologise to Wally, " she's my best friend but she's an idiot. Can we please just start over?"

" Ah but if we start all over does that mean we forget last night or re enact it, because I am totally game for the latter, beautiful."

I roll my eyes, " oh be still my beating heart," I exclaim sarcastically.

He's about to respond when Lian comes flying out of a rack and jumps on the couch next to him, looking guilty as sin.

"Lian where did you go?" Kaldur calls from within the rack, before he let out a small scream.

He emerges from the rack face covered in glitter and sequins, "well played young one, well played."

"Lian!" I exclaim.

She looks at her feet guiltily.

"Come on Kal you look beautiful, in fact that should be your new makeup regime glitter suits you." Zee tells him

He looks at himself in the mirror, posing and pouting a few times, before announcing," now my exterior is just as fabulous as my interior."

I look at Lian, "Would you like to say anything to Kaldur?"

Lian hums, " Pink's not really your colour."

Dick barks out a laugh, "That was so Jade like of her to say."

I'm about to tell her off when I'm cut off by the buzzer, this time it has to be pizza.

I launch myself of the sofa, to press the button, "pizza?"

"Pizza."

I'm practically salivating at the thought of food, I'm so hungry.

"I'll get plates." I say rushing to the kitchen.

"I'll help." Wally offers, following me through.

"So you've got a sister?" Wally asks helping get napkins out of the cupboard I directed him to.

I shrug,"We haven't really been close since our parents got divorced, she chose to leave, I got stuck in between the two of them. Her being gone made it difficult to be close. I haven't seen her since before Lian was born. We don't exactly roll in the same circles anymore."

He raises an eyebrow, "Those circles being?"

"Difficult to get out of." I deadpan.

We go silent for a minute.

"I can only find Christmas napkins." Wally announces after a moment or two of scrambling though my cupboards.

I sigh, "they're up here." I squeeze past him and point up on tiptoes to reach them, he reaches too seeing my height struggle.

I turn to say something, but the look in his green eyes distracts me from my train of thought. It's cliche but it feels like everything slows down, as I feel him lean towards me. Getting closer.

"Hey Artemis do we have any ice cream?" My best friend interrupts, before Wally and I can start making out on the kitchen counter. I pull myself away, " yeah I'll bring it out."

Zee smirks from the doorway.

"And you say Dick and I can't keep it in our pants."


	6. Chapter 5

Wally's face is as red as his hair. He mumbles something and passes out napkins. But Lian's already tucked in getting red pizza sauce all over her face and hands. And she's on Zee's expensive white leather couch, which cost her a cool half mill. I take a breath, trying to remain calm.

"Lian sweetie, how did you get so messy."

She smiles sweetly at me, " Dick bet me I couldn't fit a whole slice of pizza in my mouth and finish it by the time Zee came back from finding out from whether, and I quote, 'you and Wally were done banging in the kitchen, but I don't think you were slamming the cupboard doors very hard."

I feel my face go hot, does my roommate have no filter?

Luckily Wally steps in, "Hey Lian, want to go play mermaids in the bath tub, it's a favourite of Dawn's."

I raise an eyebrow quizzically.

"Dawn's the niece, I've been stalking his aunt on Facebook, the kid is cute."

Wally ignores Zee, he learns quickly apparently,"In fact, because your a mermaid you can't walk, so I'm going to have to carry you, can't have you sliding off the sofa and getting your new coral face powder on the sofa."

"Won't that get on your shirt instead?" I ask getting no response as he scoops up Lian who giggles.

"Come on little princess, Atlantis awaits."

I go with him, taking a box of pizza with us, she may as well eat pizza in the bath, how much damage could she do?

It turns out, a lot of damage can be done with pizza and a bath tub.

Wally plonks her in the tub fully clothed, and probably the easiest way to wash off the sauce. Which is the start of the chaos, Lian then begins to tell us her plans for the mermaid kingdom which sounds more like warfare than princess tea parties, and her tyrannical dictatorship as she decrees that all those who disagree with her shall be sentenced to "1 million years in the dungeon".

Wally in his infinite wisdom decided to test the water of disagreement with her only to have his freckled face covered in the pizza that was launched by my niece.

"Mmmm, pepperoni, my favourite," he says as a piece slides down his face, he catches it before it hits the ground popping the piece of pepperoni in his mouth.

He tries disagreeing again later, forgetting the pepperoni pizza being launched, and gets approximately half the tub of water launched at him Ina barrage of splashes, by the end Lian is not really cleaner than she was before, but Wally and I have certainly had a refreshing wash.

We instruct Lian to finish washing up, as we get a towel ready Wally stands by the bath to lift Lian out and hold her whilst I wrap her up in a towel having got her to strip to her vest and pants to reduce the amount of water going everywhere, not like that actually matters as there's water everywhere and pizza on the ceiling

"so beautiful," Wally whispers,"No we've showered together want to go back to bed?" I give him a light shove, but he loses his balance and falls into the tub.

My eyes widen in shock, "I am so sorry."

"It's fine can you help me out though, I'm at a really awkward angle."

I place Lian on the bathroom counter.

Putting my hands on my hips, "If I try to help you, you aren't going to pull me in? Right?"

"I won't pull you in, on my honour as a wilderness scout."

I offer my hand out to him, starting to pull him up.

Only to be pulled in with a resounding splash. I'm on top of him, positioned awkwardly.

"Nice to know what a scouts honour means to you." I grumble

His eye glint mischievously , "Hey beautiful, just because I'm from Kansas doesn't mean I was ever a wilderness scout."

"Hey guys is everything okay, I heard a weird yelp?"

Dick walks into the bathroom.

"Jesus you guys, not in front of Lian." He covers her eyes with his hands before carrying her out so she can get changed.


	7. Question not a chapter

Hi everyone there seems to have been a lot of me making AN posts but I was just wondering would you guys prefer lots of little updates or slightly scarcer big chapters?


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